The circular economy is changing the way businesses create and retain value – helping reduce environmental impacts from production and consumption, while opening up new opportunities for profitability, resilience, and long-term competitiveness.
Under our ‘Become Circular’ services, we provide data-driven yet pragmatic research and advisory services that help organisations and policymakers evaluate, design, and implement effective circular economy strategies and policies backed by best available evidence.
What we do
We deliver tailored analytical and advisory services that help clients assess and act on circular economy opportunities. This includes conducting material flow analysis and scenario modelling, circularity diagnostics, and business case evaluations — designed to inform strategy and policy for improving resource productivity, reducing environmental impact, enhancing economic performance, and meeting emerging regulatory and sustainability demands.
How we do it
We follow a tested, systematic, and pragmatic approach that can be adapted to different contexts. Commonly, our approach starts with an analysis of material flows within the value system in focus — whether that’s a single product, an organisation, a value chain, or an entire economy. The initial material flow analysis (MFA) is a data-driven method that maps and quantifies how materials move through the value system — such as products, components, processes, departments, and geographies. This baseline reveals value leakage, inefficiencies, and impact hotspots, and supports visual representations of pain points and stakeholders relevant to the circular transition. Building on this, we add forward-looking scenario modelling, circular economy lever mapping (e.g. reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, substitution), deep-dive analyses, and impact assessments to prioritise the most effective and feasible interventions.
Why we do it
Current business models drive unsustainable levels of resource extraction, waste, and environmental degradation – with growing impacts on climate, biodiversity, and supply chain resilience. While the circular economy is widely promoted as a solution, progress on improving resource productivity and decoupling economic activity from material consumption remains too limited. We believe this is partly due to a failure to leverage existing data and insight into actionable strategies. Our mission is to bridge that gap – helping organisations move beyond circular rhetoric through credible metrics, system-based analysis, and prioritised interventions that deliver measurable results.
Material Flow Analysis (MFA) is a critical tool for understanding and optimizing resource use within a system. By mapping the flows and stocks of materials across a value chain, MFA provides a fundamental picture of how resources are sourced, transformed, used, and eventually discarded. This systematic approach uncovers inefficiencies, value leakages, and opportunities for circular interventions such as reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing.
Data is the foundation of effective MFA. We take a pragmatic approach for leveraging your data and enhancing this with additional insights and data points to enable the quantification of material flows, identification of bottlenecks, and evaluation of circularity potential. Advanced modelling techniques and visualization tools, such as Sankey diagrams, make it possible to communicate these insights clearly, empowering stakeholders to make informed decisions.
MFA plays an essential role in guiding strategic Circular Economy (CE) analysis. It not only highlights where resources are being lost but also identifies high-value opportunities for intervention, whether by redesigning products, rethinking supply chains, or introducing circular business models. For companies seeking to improve sustainability performance, MFA is a cornerstone for developing actionable strategies and achieving measurable results.
We have a successful trackrecord in specialize in conducting robust MFA tailored to your organization’s needs. From assessing the circularity of specific materials to mapping entire value chains, our services provide the insights you need to transition toward a more sustainable and circular future. Let us help you turn data into actionable opportunities.
Circular economy initiatives not only reduce waste and environmental impact – they also uncover opportunities for economic value creation.
Our services focus on identifying, quantifying, and optimising the value that can be retained, created, and captured by shifting from linear to circular systems. By understanding how monetary value embedded in end-of-use products and materials is lost in linear flows, organisations can develop targeted circularity strategies that maximise both resource productivity and financial returns.
In many cases, a material flow analysis (MFA) provides the initial indication of where inefficiencies and opportunities lie – offering a data-driven foundation for deeper analysis of value creation and value capture potential through circular business models.
Exploring such models typically requires a careful look at upstream and downstream value chains, including value chain dependencies, economic relationships, and how value is distributed – all of which are critical for ensuring the right incentives are in place to support the business case for circularity.
The urgency to adopt circular principles is driven by multiple factors, including escalating scarcity of critical materials, geopolitical tensions, climate change, volatile costs of raw materials, increasing regulatory pressure incl. the EU Green Deal. Through its Circular Economy Action Plan and associated policies and regulations, the EU aims to increase material productivity, reduce consumption footprint and double circular material use rate across key value chains over the next decade, creating urgency for organisations to act.
Consumers and investors are also demanding greater accountability for material stewardship, making circularity a strategic priority across value chains. From manufacturers to end-users, all actors must rethink how resources flow through their systems to remain competitive in this changing landscape.
Under our Become Circular services, we offer tailored data-driven solutions to help businesses transition to circular models, enhance resource efficiency, and capture untapped value within their operations and supply chains.
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This text briefly introduces your main services to your visitors. Lorem ipsum elementum tempus egestas sed sed. Eget nullam non nisi est sit amet facilisis magna. Venenatis cras sed felis eget velit aliquet sagittis id consectetur.
This text briefly introduces your main services to your visitors. Lorem ipsum elementum tempus egestas sed sed. Eget nullam non nisi est sit amet facilisis magna. Venenatis cras sed felis eget velit aliquet sagittis id consectetur.
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The study leveraged plastic packaging material flow data in the UoE Data Observatory, combined with price data to assess the losses of value in the current PET value chain in the UK (indicating a £0.6 billion worth of lost feedstock annually). We also constructed a hypothetical case on the value capture potential in a more circular scenario.
Client: University of Exeter CE Hub
Sponsor: DEFRA
Conducted UK foresight studies for key material demand associated with the following technologies: Electrolysers, Fuel Cells, Heat Pumps. The services consisted of outlining key technology characteristics, principles of operation and essential components and materials, mapping of the global and UK supply chain picture for the relevant key materials used in the technology, and identification of supply bottlenecks. Also conducted modelling of UK projected material demand until 2030 and 2050, respectively, for different product/technology demand scenarios. Stakeholder engagement and reporting of key findings and recommendations.
Client: University of Exeter (UoE) CE Hub
Sponsor: BGS / UK Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre (CMIC).
Collaborated on a prototype data pooling network for rare earth element (REE) magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines. Delivered project management services, material flow analysis, value chain analysis, and recommendations to enhance circularity and demonstrate significant economic potential.
Client: University of Exeter (UoE) CE Hub
Sponsor: Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Developed material flow and value chain analyses for bricks, concrete, and steel in UK building stock, identifying pain points and circular interventions, scenario analyses and recommendations for scaling circular practices in construction.
Client: University of Exeter (UoE) CE Hub
Sponsor: UKRI
Mapped post-consumer plastics flows, analysed circular potential across fisheries, agriculture, and households, and proposed targeted interventions for regional plastics circularity. The work inspired additional consulting services for the client.
Client: University of Exeter (UoE) CE Hub
Sponsor: DEFRA
In relation to the sponsor’s major ongoing infrastructure project, the assignment had the aim to map existing assets to be dismantled and identify the potential to reuse or revalorise EoL assets in a closed loop within the project or alternatively in an open loop within or outside the organisation. Tasks and outputs included consolidation of extensive and diverse data sets and enrichment with additional critical data points to enable a material flow analysis (MFA). Based on the MFA, estimation of the associated asset/material values and embedded externalities (GHG footprint). Based on the findings, identification of CE potential and interventions to increase value retention and reduce GHG footprint.
Client: Returnity Partners GmbH
Sponsor: A major European Infrastructure Developer (name confidential)
Conducted a company-wide material flow analysis for a major European infrastructure firm, identifying circular opportunities, providing decision-making support for CE initiatives. The outcome of this study provided the first ever corporate wide overview and identified a number of CE-interventions for implementation. It forms until today (2024) the strategic backbone of the beneficiary’s CE-transformation journey.
Client: Returnity Partners GmbH
Sponsor: A major European Infrastructure Developer (name confidential)